HALIFAX GOES RED; STATE, NATION SIDE WITH OBAMA

Long lines to vote at the South Boston armory.

SoVaNow.com / November 08, 2012

Halifax County voters bucked the tide Tuesday by delivering majorities to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and U.S. Senate hopeful George Allen, but the Old Dominion wound up in the Democratic column as their opponents, President Barack Obama and U.S. Senator-elect Tim Kaine, both prevailed.

The Romney-Ryan ticket came away with a 931-vote margin out of 16,673 votes cast in Halifax County in the presidential election. The results came in locally long before the national contest was called for President Obama around 11 p.m. Tuesday night, as it became clear that the key battleground state of Ohio would tip his way.

Virginia also went for Obama as favorable returns for the Democratic trickled in late in the evening from Fairfax County and Norfolk, wiping out an early Romney advantage in the state. Obama won Virginia by just shy of 100,000 votes, a 50.6 - 47.9 percent split, after carrying the Commonwealth in 2008 by 234,527 votes. It marked the second consecutive presidential cycle that Virginia went blue after backing Republican candidates since 1964.

In Halifax County, Romney won by a 51.1 - 46.5 percent margin.

Surrounding Virginia counties had a more reddish tint. Mecklenburg County delivered a 53 - 46 percent win for Romney and Pittsylvania voters supported the GOP ticket by a 63 - 36 percent margin. In Charlotte County Romney won by a 56-42 percent split. Obama carried the City of Danville, 60-38 percent.

Halifax County also favored U.S. Senate candidate George Allen and Fifth District Congressman Robert Hurt, but of the two only Hurt won his race.

The first-term Chatham Republican turned back a challenge by Fauquier County Democrat John Douglass, winning the Fifth District by 42,237 votes, 55.4 - 42.9 percent.

The race was somewhat closer in Halifax County, with Hurt coming away with a 53.0-45.7 percent majority.

Hurt captured all localities in the Fifth District except for the counties of Albermarle, Brunswick and Prince Edward and the cities of Danville and Charlottesville. He also won Fauquier County, Douglass’ home, by a 58-39 percent margin.

In the Senate race, Allen drew support across Southside Virginia in his bid to retake his old seat, relinquished in 2006 to Democrat Jim Webb, who decided not to run for re-election in 2012. But Allen was defeated handily by Democratic candidate Kaine, who ran strongly in northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to keep the Senate seat in Democratic hands.

Kaine won by a 52.3 – 47.5 percent margin statewide. In Halifax County, Allen collected 53.6 percent of the vote to 46.2 percent for Kaine, giving him the biggest margin of victory locally of any of the GOP candidates.

In other election results:

The impact of Virgil Goode’s presidential run on the Constitution Party ticket proved to be nil. Goode collected 0.37 percent of the vote in Virginia, less than the 0.82 percent taken by Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. With pre-election polls showing a tight race in Virginia, some Republicans feared the presence of the former Fifth District Congressman on the presidential ballot could draw crucial votes away from Romney.

All 11 of Virginia’s congressmen were returned to office in elections that were not especially close. In the 2nd Congressional district, first-term Republican Scott Rigell defeated Democratic challenger Paul Hirschbiel by a 53.7 – 46.2 percent margin. Hurt, with a 12-point lead in the Fifth District, had the second smallest margin of victory.

The two constitutional amendments on the ballot — to place restrictions on eminent domain in Virginia and change the timing of the General Assembly’s veto session — passed easily in Halifax County and in the state.

Nationally, Democrats thwarted an all-out push by Republicans to take control of the U.S. Senate while further padding their majority in Congress’ upper chamber.

The party picked up seats in Massachusetts and Indiana, beat back hard-fought challenges in North Dakota, Missouri, Montana, Virginia, Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin to hold those seats for Democrats, and saw a Democratic-leaning independent win in Maine, succeeding the Republican senator who retired.

The lone hotly-contested race to go the GOP’s way was in Nevada, where some returns remained outstanding as of yesterday. Democrats are expected to hold a 55-45 majority in the Senate, including independent leaners.

Republicans picked up the governorship in North Carolina, with former Charlotte major Pat McCrory turning back Democratic candidate Walter Dalton with 55 percent of the vote. Dalton tallied 43 percent.

Across the country, voters approved referenda ranging from approval of same-sex marriage in Maryland and Massachusetts to legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Massachusetts. In Minnesota, voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage, although the practice remains illegal in the state.